The New Development Bank (NDB) plans to lend Eskom as much as $780-million for infrastructure projects this year, as the ailing power utility battles to keep power supply steady.

Eskom, which implemented ten days of controlled power cuts in March, is contending with operational and financial challenges, threatening the productivity of Africa’s most industrialised economy. Government is considering various interventions to turn the company around, including a $4.8-billion bailout over three years and splitting the organisation into three parts to help contain costs.

The NDB, backed by the so-called Brics nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, was in talks with government about loans that could alleviate some of the pressure on the country’s electricity grid, the lender’s president, KV Kamath, said by phone.

The development institution was rolling out a $180-million loan to Eskom to build transmission lines and was considering two further projects in 2019, he said. The first was a $480-million loan that would pay for retrofitting flue-gas desulphurisation equipment to make the Medupi power plant compliant with new environmental standards. The second was a further $300-million facility to improve the country’s battery storage capacity, Kamath said.

“Power is now a critical element in South Africa’s infrastructure and, at this point . . . it is imperative that we work with government in alleviating this problem”. Medupi will have about 4 800 MW of installed capacity once completed.

The plan to split Eskom into generation, transmission and distribution units was heartening, Kamath said. “We are equally clear that this won’t happen overnight, so there is always a need to extend a hand during the transitioning process and that’s what we are doing.”

The funding planned for Eskom would make up most of the $900-million the NDB would extend in South Africa in 2019. By the end of the year, the lender would have roughly $2.4-billion in loans in the country. Eskom did not respond to requests for comment.

The NDB was started in 2015 to support sustainable infrastructure projects across its emerging-market members. The Shanghai-based bank would have extended $7.5-billion to $8-billion across its members by the end of the year, bringing the extent of its assistance to Brics nations to about $15-billion.